Short of Cash, U.N. Cuts Syria Refugees’ Rations Again

Reuters, July 1, 2015

GENEVA–The World Food Programme, running short of cash, will halve the value of food vouchers given to Syrian refugees in Lebanon this month and may cut all help for 440,000 Syrians in Jordan next month, the U.N. agency said on Wednesday.

“Just when we thought things couldn’t get worse, we are forced yet again to make yet more cuts,” Muhannad Hadi, WFP’s Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, said in a statement. “Refugees were already struggling to cope with what little we could provide.”

United Nations aid agencies said last week that a $4.5 billion appeal to tackle the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015 was less than a quarter funded, putting millions of vulnerable people at risk, and had already led to cuts in vital assistance.

The shortfall has meant 1.6 million refugees have had food assistance cut this year and 750,000 children are not attending school, the agencies and partner organizations said, calling on countries to deliver on their pledges.

WFP said Syrian refugees in Lebanon would now get $13.50 to spend on food in the month of July. The organization needs $139 million to keep helping almost 4 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey until September.

WFP said its global contributions rose by 27 percent in 2014, but the unprecedented number of humanitarian emergencies–including Syria, Iraq, South Sudan and the West African countries hit by Ebola–meant its needs were rising even faster, and continued to outpace available funding.

Syria’s conflict is now in its fifth year and has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced around half of the population. U.N. aid agencies have described it as one of the worst refugee crises since World War Two.

The United Nations predicts there will be 4.27 million Syrian refugees in the region by the end of 2015. U.N. funds also aim to help more than 20 million local people in communities hosting refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.

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Drug cops took a college kid’s savings and now 13 police departments want a cut

By Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post, June 30, 2015

In February 2014, Drug Enforcement Administration task force officers at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport seized $11,000 in cash from 24-year-old college student Charles Clarke. They didn’t find any guns, drugs or contraband on him. But, according to an affidavit filled out by one of the agents, the task force officers reasoned that the cash was the proceeds of drug trafficking, because Clarke was traveling on a recently-purchased one-way ticket, he was unable to provide documentation for where the money came from, and his checked baggage had an odor of marijuana. (He was a marijuana smoker.)

Clarke’s cash, which says he he spent five years saving up, was seized under civil asset forfeiture, where cops are able to take cash and property from people who are never convicted of–and in some cases, never even charged with–a crime. The DEA maintains that asset forfeiture is an important crime-fighting tool.

But the practice has become contentious, in part because agencies are generally allowed to keep a share of the cash and property they seize. In cases like Clarke’s, where local and federal agents cooperate on a seizure, federal agencies typically keep at least 20 percent of the assets, while local cops split the remainder among themselves. Critics argue that this creates a profit motive and leads to “policing for profit.”

Two local agencies were involved in the seizure of Clarke’s cash: the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport Police, and the Covington Police Department, which is the home office of the DEA task force officer who detained and spoke with Clarke. But according to the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit civil liberties group now representing Clarke in court, 11 additional law enforcement agencies–who were not involved in Clarke’s case at all–have also requested a share of Clarke’s cash under the federal asset forfeiture program. They include the Kentucky State Police, the Ohio Highway Patrol, and even the Bureau of Criminal Investigations within the Ohio Attorney General’s office.

These numbers all come from an Institute for Justice review of the Justice Department’s Consolidated Asset Tracking System, the federal asset forfeiture database. The airport police have requested the lion’s share of Charles Clarke’s $11,000, at 40 percent. The Cincinnati Police Dept. has requested an additional 6.14 percent of it, with the rest of the agencies requesting 3.07 percent each. That all adds up to just under 80 percent, which by law is the maximum amount local agencies are allowed to receive in cases like this.

The practice of civil asset forfeiture has drawn increasing scrutiny from lawmakers. Just recently, three Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration expressing concern over a recent forfeiture case involving a young man, Joseph Rivers, who had $16,000 seized at an Amtrak stop in New Mexico. The letter describes the circumstances of the seizure as “disturbing,” particularly Rivers’ contention that he was racially profiled as the only black person on that part of the train.

Like Joseph Rivers, Charles Clarke is a young black man. And like Rivers, he lost his cash at a so-called “cold consent” encounter–that is, a warrantless search voluntarily agreed to–at one of the nation’s transportation hubs. Clarke didn’t have any marijuana on him or in his baggage, so he hasn’t been charged with any drug crimes. He was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer, however, after he tried to prevent the agents from seizing his money by yelling at them and struggling with the agents when they grabbed the cash, according to the agent’s affidavit. The charges were subsequently dropped, according to his lawyers at the Institute for Justice.

So why are 11 agencies that were not involved with the forfeiture of Clarke’s cash requesting a cut of it? The most likely reason, according to Darpana Sheth, the lead attorney representing Charles Clarke, is that they all participate in the same DEA drug task force that’s home to the officer who made the seizure.

“Law enforcement agencies are just scrambling to get a cut of the money and it has nothing to do with legitimate law enforcement incentives,” said Clarke’s attorney Darpana Sheth. “It’s more about policing for profit.” The small amounts that most agencies requested–just a few hundred dollars–represent what Sheth calls the “pettiness” of much of civil asset forfeiture. “It’s really just the money, it’s not anything else that’s driving the request,” she said.

And over time, these payouts can add up. The Institute for Justice provided numbers from their analysis of Department of Justice forfeiture data on the cash value of seizures at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) from 2000 to 2013. Those number show seizure amounts spiking sharply in recent years, even as overall passenger volume has dropped precipitously.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, passenger departures at CVG have dropped by about 75 percent since 2005, from a high of roughly 11 million down to fewer than 3 million in 2013. Over the same time, the total amount of cash seized at the airport has increased more than sixteen-fold, from $147,000 to $3 million in 2012. So in stepping up their seizure efforts, authorities at the airport are squeezing more cash out of fewer passengers.

In some ways, this increase mirrors the overall rise in asset forfeitures seen around the country in recent years. And it’s worth reiterating that this is all above-board and perfectly legal. But for critics, that’s precisely the problem. And their efforts are starting to bear fruit: Congress has been holding hearings on the issue. Senator Rand Paul has introduced legislation that would remove some of the profit motive from asset forfeiture practices.

But until such reforms pass, people like Charles Clarke will have to work within the current forfeiture system, which allows law enforcement officers to seize property first under the presumption of guilt. The title of the federal government’s lawsuit perfectly encapsulates the odd situation that forfeiture defendants find themselves in: “United States of America v. $11,000 in United States Currency and Charles L. Clarke, II.”

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The Sovereign Man

Notes from the Field
Singapore

Yesterday over coffee, a friend of mine leaked the news that JP Morgan’s private banking division here in Singapore is going to start charging negative interest rates.

I almost fell out of my chair.

He’s a successful hedge fund manager and one of their best customers. So when he received the notice, he rang up his private banker and demanded to know why.

Between ridiculously low interest rates (banks are closing loans here for 0.9% or lower) and the increasing costs of compliance, “we can’t make money anymore...” was the response.

It certainly paints a clear picture of how screwed up the entire financial system is.

Compliance is a major component in this. Bankers around the world are buried up to their eyeballs in paperwork and regulations now.

They can’t make a move or approve a single transaction without first doing anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, and tax evasion due diligence.

Imagine it like this: your banker rings you up tomorrow and says,

“The government of China requires us to have all of our depositors fill out this paperwork. So I need you to send this form back to me ASAP…”

You’d probably think it was a joke.

Or at a minimum think, “Wait, what? I’m not Chinese. You’re not a Chinese bank. Who cares about some stupid Chinese regulation?”

And you’d be right.

Except that’s precisely what the United States is doing right now.

All over the world, bankers are contacting their customers and forcing them to fill out paperwork to comply with idiotic US government regulations. Even when there’s no connection to the US.

Here in Singapore, the bankers are completely miserable about it.

They’re so angry for having to call customers and say, “Yes I know you’re in India, and I know we’re in Singapore, and I know you’ve been a customer for 10 years. But you still have to fill out this US government form or else we’ll close your account.”

It’s ridiculous-- all of this because the US government is bankrupt.

A few years ago they passed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)-- a major part of their crusade to stamp out tax evasion and bring in more tax revenue.

FATCA is now in full force. Banks all over the world have been forced to enter into information sharing agreements with the IRS, meaning that they have to report on all of their customers and force them to fill out meaningless forms.

Needless to say, this costs a lot of money.

If you own a business, you can just imagine how frustrating and expensive it would be to have your employees toil away on senseless paperwork instead of... you know, doing real business.

The US government tells us that all of these disclosure programs have brought in about $6.5 billion in tax revenue.

Yet the costs of compliance are estimated to cost at least $8 billion, with some estimates over 10x higher.

Now that’s a neat trick. Uncle Sam gets the money and passes off the costs to everyone else.

And those who don’t comply with America’s rules are destroyed.

The most blatant example of this was last year, when a French bank was fined $9 billion for doing business with countries that Uncle Sam didn’t like.

Bear in mind, this was a French bank, not an American bank.

They violated no French laws. Yet they had to pay the US government $9 billion for doing business with places like Cuba.

(Ironically, Cuba is now BFFs with the United States, but it’s not like the bank is going to get a refund.)

More recently, the US government destroyed an Andorran bank that was accused of weak anti-money laundering controls.

And a few years ago they took down the oldest private bank in Switzerland.

Every bank in the world has seen these incidents, and they’re scared. They could be next.

And that’s why you can’t get a single financial transaction done anymore without first submitting a mountain of paperwork to prove that you’re not a terrorist. Or financing terrorists. Or laundering money. Or doing business with the Axis of Evil.

Even outside of banking it has become utterly ridiculous.

A friend of mine here runs one of the largest bullion depositories in Singapore; he wanted to buy some raw gold and have it made into bars, so he contacted a refiner.

The refiner said, “Sure no problem. I just need you to send us some compliance documentation before we get started.”

Then he sent a list of no fewer than 22 items that he needed to submit-- copies of licenses, passports, certificates, etc.

22 items. Just to have a refiner make some gold bars. Ridiculous.

So obviously they’re not going to waste their time. Which means there’s some business that could have been done, but won’t, simply because of the compliance costs.

The US government has really screwed the world on this. Paperwork is the priority. Not business.

And all because America is bankrupt.

This trip to Singapore has been very eye-opening for me as I’m just now starting to understand how much people within the financial system despise the US government.

They feel like they’re being forced at gunpoint to be volunteer spies and tax collectors, simply because US politicians have been financially irresponsible.

And to me, it’s the biggest sign yet that America’s financial dominance is coming to an end. They’ve essentially engineered it themselves by alienating the whole world.

The transition isn’t going to be smooth. And it won’t happen overnight. But there will come a time, and likely soon, when the United States gets displaced.

And the rest of the world can hardly wait.
Until tomorrow,

Simon Black
Founder, SovereignMan.com

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A Ressurreição da Vida

Link
D. Brandt Berg

“Não fiquem admirados com isto, pois está chegando a hora em que todos os que estiverem nos túmulos ouvirão a sua voz e sairão; os que fizeram o bem ressuscitarão para a vida, e os que fizeram o mal ressuscitarão para serem condenados.” — João 5:28–29[1]

“Amados, agora somos filhos de Deus, e ainda não se manifestou o que havemos de ser, mas sabemos que, quando ele se manifestar, seremos semelhantes a ele, pois o veremos como ele é.” — 1 João 3:2[2]

Quando Jesus vier, acontecerá o grande e maravilhoso milagre da ressurreição. Todos que Lhe pertencem, todos os salvos, terão então uma ressurreição gloriosa, ou, se estiverem vivos, instantaneamente transformados e levados da face da terra. Todos iremos para junto do Senhor, para a grande Ceia das Bodas do Cordeiro, enquanto a Ira de Deus é derramada sobre os que restaram na Terra.

O regresso de Jesus e a nossa consequente ressureição são eventos mencionados várias vezes tanto no Antigo como no Novo Testamento. Esse grande acontecimento apocalíptico é mencionado muitas vezes e de várias maneiras. Embora não se possa encontrar a palavra "arrebatamento" nas Escrituras, ela se encaixa muito bem, pois resume o sentido e o contexto da vinda do Senhor nas nuvens, o soar das trombetas, a ressurreição dos mortos, a trasladação dos salvos e a reunião de todos nós com o Senhor.

O apóstolo Paulo oferece uma visão reveladora sobre esse maravilhoso acontecimento no capítulo 4 da sua primeira epístola aos Tessalonicenses: "Não quero porém, irmãos, que sejais ignorantes acerca dos que já dormem, para que não vos entristeçais, como os demais, que não têm esperança."[3] Ele diz: "Não quero que sejam tão desinformados a ponto de não saberem o que vai acontecer quando Jesus voltar. Não quero que lamentem a morte por não entenderem que haverá a ressurreição."

"Porque se cremos que Jesus morreu e ressuscitou, assim, também, aos que em Jesus dormem, Deus os voltará a trazer com ele.[4] Os que dormem em Jesus é uma maneira de falar muito usada, referindo-se aos “mortos em Cristo", aqueles que morreram no Senhor, cristãos nascidos de novo que já partiram para junto do Senhor. Todos que nos são queridos e já partiram desta vida estão com o Senhor. Os seus corpos, a bem dizer, estão dormindo e voltaram para o pó se já lá estão há tempo suficiente. Mas eles próprios, os seus espíritos, não estão dormindo na sepultura. Estão com Jesus. "Porque estar ausente do corpo é estar presente com o Senhor!"[5] Eles "partiram para estar com Cristo, que é ainda muito melhor![6]

Jesus vai voltar com os espíritos dos santos que já partiram, para eles poderem apanhar seus novos corpos ressurretos. Deus quer provar que Ele pode ressuscitar os mortos, por isso Ele os vai ressuscitar dos mortos, literalmente, mas em um novo corpo. Será um novo corpo ressuscitado como o que Ele tinha quando ressurgiu dos mortos. Vai ser lindo! Os novos corpos da ressurreição, glorificados e sobrenaturais vão ressuscitar e se juntar aos seus espíritos no momento da vinda de Cristo.

Portanto, os mortos em Cristo vão voltar com o Senhor, e Ele diz que "nós, os que ficarmos vivos, para a vinda do Senhor" — aqueles que ainda estivermos vivos quando Jesus vier — "não precederemos os que dormem."[7] O significado literal é que não antes dos que dormem. O Senhor diz que eles ressuscitarão e ascenderão primeiro. Os que morreram no Senhor e foram para junto dEle ressurgirão antes.

"Porque o mesmo Senhor descerá do céu com alarido, com a voz de arcanjo, e com a trombeta de Deus! E os mortos em Cristo ressuscitarão primeiro! Os que morreram no Senhor vão ressuscitar primeiro! Nós que estivermos vivos, provavelmente iremos ver a ressurreição dos mortos! "Depois nós os que ficarmos vivos seremos arrebatados juntamente com eles nas nuvens, a encontrar o Senhor nos ares!"[8] Com uma súbita, sobrenatural, milagrosa e poderoso golpe de Deus, Ele agitará a sua varinha de poder e pronto! Nós que estamos vivos seremos transformados, transladados e arrebatados incorruptíveis para junto do Senhor nos ares. E depois ainda falam da emoção de saltar de paraquedas! Nosso corpo vai mudar ali mesmo, de um corpo meramente vivo para um corpo que vai viver para sempre!

"Eis que aqui vos digo um mistério; na verdade, nem todos dormiremos" nós não vamos morrer todos no Senhor, alguns de nós ainda estaremos vivos quando o Senhor vier "mas todos seremos transformados."[9] Ele diz que é um mistério, visto ser bastante difícil compreender e explicar. Afinal, como explicar que um velho corpo corrupto e apodrecido que está na sepultura há centenas ou até mesmo milhares de anos, vai voltar à vida perfeitamente íntegro e até melhor do que antes?

"Todos seremos mudados num momento, num abrir e fechar de olhos, ante a última trombeta" — em instantes, no tempo que leva para piscar. "Porque a trombeta soará, e os mortos ressuscitarão incorruptíveis, e nós seremos transformados."[10]

"Porque convém que isto, que é corruptível, se revista da incorruptibilidade, e que isto, que é mortal, se revista da imortalidade."[11] Por um milagre, Deus vai transformar nossos corpos como aconteceu com Jesus. Obviamente Jesus não ficou na sepultura durante tanto tempo como algumas pessoas.

"Ele transformará o nosso corpo vil, para ser conforme ao Seu corpo glorioso, segundo o Seu eficaz poder de sujeitar, também, a si todas as coisas.”[12] Vamos ser como Jesus depois da Sua ressurreição! Ele caminhou com Seus seguidores e conversou com eles. Até comeu e bebeu com eles. Jesus cozinhou para eles.[13] No nosso novo corpo ressuscitado, poderemos comer, dormir, beber, e fazer seja o que for que podemos fazer agora. Mas também poderemos fazer algumas coisas que nunca pudemos fazer com nosso corpo natural.

Jesus não só podia fazer todas as coisas normais e naturais, mas quando estavam todos em uma sala com as portas trancadas, de repente Ele passou pela porta e entrou.[14] E poderemos atravessar paredes, portas, voar através de tetos, aparecer e desaparecer exatamente como Jesus fez. Poderemos nos locomover não só à velocidade lenta do som ou da luz, mas à velocidade do pensamento.

Quando Jesus apareceu de repente aos discípulos naquela sala trancada, diz que "eles espantados e aterrorizados, pensavam que viam algum espírito."[15] Eles estavam mortos de medo, porque pensavam estar vendo um fantasma! Mas Jesus lhes disse: "Tocai-Me, apalpai-Me e vede que sou Eu mesmo, não um espírito; porque um espírito não tem carne nem osso, como vedes que eu tenho."[16] Ele não disse carne e sangue, "porque a carne e o sangue não podem herdar o reino de Deus", pois "a vida da carne está no sangue."[17]

O Seu corpo ressurreto era de carne e osso. Mas, logicamente, bastante diferente dos corpos que nós agora temos. E quando Ele disse a Tomé, que duvidou: "Põe os teus dedos nas marcas dos pregos na Minha mão e chega a tua mão e mete-a no Meu lado; e não sejas incrédulo, mas crente"[18], Ele mostrou que, se os ferimentos ainda estavam lá, só podia ser o mesmo corpo de quando Ele morreu.

Quando Jesus voltar e a grande trombeta soar, vamos trocar o nosso modelo atual de corpo, cansado, velho, carnal e terreno, por um modelo celestial, completamente novo, como o de Jesus depois da ressurreição. "Amados, agora somos filhos de Deus, e ainda não é manifestado o que havemos de ser. Mas sabemos que, quando Ele se manifestar, nós seremos semelhantes a Ele, porque, assim como é, O veremos."[19] Quando Jesus vier, nós O veremos como Ele é, face a face, e seremos literalmente como Ele.

Os corpos do futuro, sobrenaturais, milagrosos, ressuscitados e transformados, vão ser como os anjos de Deus. "Porque já não podem mais morrer; pois são iguais aos anjos; e são filhos de Deus, sendo filhos da ressurreição."[20]

Lembre-se que, apesar de ganhar um novo corpo ressurreto, vai continuar sendo você. Você vai ter a mesma aparência, só que melhor, muito melhor. Mas vai ser você, com o mesmo corpo, caso contrário não seria uma ressurreição. E se o corpo natural e carnal de alguém se decompôs completamente e voltou ao pó, ou se a pessoa foi cremada e as cinzas lançadas em uma vasta área, se Deus tiver que pegar cada próton, elétron e nêutron e formar os átomos de novo e a criar do pó outra vez, ou das cinzas, ou da fumaça, ou seja lá do que for e de onde for, Ele o fará, e juntará o corpo da pessoa novamente.

"E, se o Espírito daquele que dos mortos ressuscitou a Jesus habita em voz, aquele que dos mortos ressuscitou a Cristo também vivificará os vossos corpos mortais, pelo Seu Espírito que em vós habita. Ora Deus, que também ressuscitou o Senhor, nos ressuscitará a nós pelo Seu poder. E, quando isto que é corruptível se revestir da incorruptibilidade, e isto que é mortal se revestir da imortalidade, então cumprir-se-á a palavra que está escrita: Tragada foi a morte na vitória. Onde está, ó morte, o teu aguilhão? Onde está, ó sepultura, a tua vitória? Mas, graças a Deus, que nos dá a vitória, por nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo."[21]

Publicado originalmente em maio 1983. Adaptado e republicado em setembro 2014. Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.


[1] RC.

[2] Salvo indicação contrária, todos os versículos são da versão Revista e Corrigida, João Ferreira de Almeida.

[3] 1 Tessalonicenses 4:13.

[4] 1 Tessalonicenses 4:14.

[5] 2 Coríntios 5:8.

[6] Filipenses 1:23.

[7] 1 Tessalonicenses 4:15.

[8] 1 Tessalonicenses 4:16–17.

[9] 1 Coríntios 15:51.

[10] 1Coríntios 15:52.

[11] 1 Coríntios 15:53.

[12] Filipenses 3:21.

[13] Veja Lucas 24:43; João 21:9–14.

[14] Veja João 20:26.

[15] Lucas 24:37.

[16] Lucas 24:39.

[17] 1 Coríntios 15:50; Levítico 17:11.

[18] João 20:27.

[19] 1 João 3:2.

[20] Lucas 20:36.

[21] Romanos 8:11; 1 Coríntios 6:14; 15:54–55, 57.

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Greeks Line Up for Money and Stock Up on Goods as Cash Rationing Starts

By Anemona Hartocollis, NY Times, June 29, 2015

ATHENS–Uncertain what might happen next, with banks and financial markets closed, across Athens people wasted little time Monday, rushing to the nearest A.T.M. to withdraw their new daily maximum of 60 euros, determined to raise every last cent while they could.

Yet, even as Greeks faced a new level of chaos and hardship this week, they were being confronted with another unsolvable riddle: a vote on their future that was even more uncertain than the current chaos.

“Simply put, we’re confused,” Eleni Gardikioti, 31, an insurance worker, said. “We don’t understand what games they are playing, whether to stay or go and whether there is a permanent goal in all that.”

There were good arguments on each side, she said, as she fished out a coin to give to a beggar.

In a referendum on Sunday, Greeks will be asked to decide whether to accept a take-it-or-leave-it bailout offer by the country’s creditors, and remain mired in austerity in the eurozone, or reject the deal but suffer the consequences of leaving the euro.

The question is not as simple as it might sound. For one, the bailout offer has already been withdrawn by the eurozone’s finance ministers, so it is not clear the parties could reach a deal now even if Greece voted in favor.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras clouded the matter further on Monday by saying a vote against the deal would not necessarily mean abandoning the euro, but rather would give him leverage to negotiate a better agreement with Greece’s creditors–other European Union nations, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.

Anecdotally, how people said they would vote in the referendum had little to do with those considerations, but broke down largely along lines of age and class. Older and more affluent Greeks leaned toward voting yes and younger and poorer Greeks leaned toward no, essentially as a protest of what they viewed as foreign oppression.

Whatever the outcome, Athenians were busy adapting to the new reality on Monday, focusing more on getting through the week than worrying too far into the future. People were emptying supermarket shelves, filling up containers at gas stations and lining up at automated teller machines, hoping that the supply of hard cash would not run out before it was their turn.

Athenians everywhere wore looks of anxiety, despite a pleasantly cool summer day. Over the last few weeks, Greeks have withdrawn billions of euros from the banking system, leading to capital controls. On Monday, customers found many cash machines shut down until noon to be reprogrammed with the new limit. For hours after the machines began operating again, people stood in line, waiting to receive their rations of cash.

Standing outside the cash machines seemed to have a counterintuitive effect on some people, hardening them against the European creditors rather than making them angry at their own government.

“We’re all happy with Tsipras!” said Eleni Hartofilaka, waiting to take her €60 (about $67) out of an Alpha Bank branch. “We’re happy for the Europeans to learn not to be on top of us.”

For some, the word “no,” or “Oxi” in Greek, has a historical symbolism that makes it even more appealing in the present context. As every Greek schoolchild knows, the annual Oxi Day commemorates the answer, in spirit if not verbatim, delivered by Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas to a demand from Mussolini to allow Italian forces to occupy strategic parts of Greece at the beginning of World War II.

Ms. Gardikioti said that she and her boyfriend had limited savings and little to lose. Even if a no vote meant a retreat to the previous Greek currency, the drachma, after a period of hardship, the Greeks would recover.

At the Evangelismos Metro station near Central Athens, Dimitra Papaioannou, 30, had just taken a free subway ride, after coming to the city by bus from the northern town of Larissa to visit her doctor. She had arrived in Athens with almost no cash because the A.T.M.’s in her hometown had been bled dry.

She said she had not decided whether she would vote on Sunday, but if she did, she would vote no to the European bailout proposal. Unlike city folk, she could be self-sufficient, she said, rolling a cigarette.

“I will go to the village and dig to live,” she said. “I believe no one should fear. Here in Athens, they will go hungry. In the village we have our field, a chicken. Of course, doctors we won’t have, or maybe.”

A few blocks away, the A/B Vasilopoulos supermarket, a major chain, was mobbed, as though a major hurricane were on the way. A cashier said she was exhausted as she rang up groceries at lunchtime. “You should have seen it this morning,” she said.

Discounted Pampers were sold out, and people were forced to buy the more expensive version. Housewives were leaving with gigantic bundles of toilet paper. The cheapest brands of olive oil and pasta had sold out. Stock clerks were everywhere, replenishing supplies of everything from sugar to frozen vegetables.

“Don’t panic,” one woman urged another, as she picked over the noodles. “I think the Greek companies like Misko will still be producing pasta even if we cannot import it.” Italian ravioli, she added, examining a package, maybe not.

Several people said that the general mood had become so distressed and polarized that people were talking about the possibility of civil war. Mr. Tsipras seemed to be alluding to such fears in his brief speech Sunday night announcing the capital controls. He urged “dignity” and “calm” and echoing Franklin D. Roosevelt, said “Our only fear is fear.”

At a small but elegant antiques store, Art & Craft, the proprietor, Miltiades Macrygiannis, actually had a customer, though, he noted after she left, she spoke Greek with an accent, indicating that she was foreign.

Surrounded by hanging lamps, carved mirrors, old worry beads and objects bearing the evil eye, to ward away evil, Mr. Macrygiannis said that like most businesses, he could not get cash to replenish his stock now that cash controls were in effect.

He planned to vote yes, but reluctantly, as the lesser of two bad choices. “I wouldn’t imagine, even as a nightmare, the scenario of going back to the drachma,” Mr. Macrygiannis said. “It would take 10 years to get us back on our feet again.”

On the other hand, “You can say yes to this agreement, a very painful agreement, and it means too many taxes, cutting down on pensions.”

Those who will gain, he said, are the superrich who have squirreled away their euros in Switzerland or the Virgin Islands, and will be able to swoop in to buy devalued goods and property.

What upset him most, he said, was the uncertainty. “The Greek government right now, they don’t give me the next day,” he said. “They ask us to vote no. Then at least tell me what is going to happen the day after.”

He added: “We fought to be in the European Union for so many years. Greece will not be in Europe but countries like Bulgaria and Romania will? It sounds like a bad joke.”

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5-Minute Speech that Got Judge Napolitano Fired at Fox News

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Reflexões Celestiais

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Os períodos difíceis da vida são reais. Existem mesmo épocas de sofrimento, reveses e trabalho árduo. No entanto, prometi a vocês um escape, para que nunca seja mais do que conseguem suportar.

Uma maneira de você ser encorajado e renovar sua visão e perspectiva no meio das batalhas é a meditação, que pode ajudar seu espírito a recobrar o que precisa para continuar.

A meditação nos ajuda espiritualmente a conseguir suportar, porque o corpo e o espírito descansam. Relaxam e se desligam, o que alivia o estresse mental, pois ao ficarem sossegados o Meu Espírito pode retirar seus fardos. A meditação cria uma conexão e que o aproxima de Mim e pode renovar sua força e lhe dar paz de espírito.

(Obs.: As reflexões seguintes foram recebidas em profecia e meditação.)

A rotunda da visão celestial

Imagine-se saindo dos corredores e entrando na Rotunda da Visão Celestial. É como se tivesse sido levado a uma outra dimensão. Lá fora, nos corredores, é barulhento. A atividade ao seu redor, o incitando a ir mais rápido é constante. Ouve o som monótono das vozes o chamando. Parece que o puxam de todas as direções, ora os membros da sua própria família, ora aqueles com quem você trabalha, ora o trabalho que precisa ser feito.

Mas agora lhe pedi para entrar debaixo da cúpula. Aqui você sente um sossego, uma paz e uma calma que tinha quase esquecido que existiam. Mal percebia como era barulhento lá fora, de tão acostumado que estava com esse ambiente. Mas assim que entrou nesse lugar sagrado e a porta se fechou, o barulho sumiu, bem como o sentimento de urgência e a pressão por tudo o que tem para fazer.

Você olha para o alto da cúpula. Acima dela só existe a amplidão do universo. Você é muito pequeno, é minúsculo em comparação com a eternidade, as incontáveis estrelas e planetas e as multidões de galáxias. Reflete então no fato de que, assim como criei o universo, também criei você.

Fica assombrado e maravilhado ao pensar na Minha grandiosidade e poder. Nesse momento, suas preocupações desaparecem. Todos os cuidados e pesos no seu coração e mente se desvanecem. Você respira fundo o Meu ar celestial e refrescante, e o poder revigorador é um grande contraste entre o ar viciado nos corredores, que normalmente o deixa ofegante e fraco. Aqui é diferente. O ar é muito limpo e fresco, tão enriquecido pelo Meu Espírito, que cada vez que você respira, sente o seu corpo rejuvenescer e ser restaurado.

Você se sente muito relaxado e calmo, com uma grande paz, envolvido por um amor fortíssimo no qual ninguém pode interferir. Preocupação ou ansiedades não conseguem invadir este lugar onde nossos corações se fundem.

Desenhos nas nuvens

Você está caminhando por uma trilha na mata cheia de castanheiras, ladeada pelo mesmo musgo reluzente que cresce na base das árvores antigas ao seu redor. Uma suave brisa refresca o ar úmido.

Durante o percurso, uma clara névoa, em suave coreografia, começa a entrar pelo espaço entre as árvores. Vai rolando e rodopiando na brisa, como se quisesse chamar a sua atenção. Você observa e essas nuvens começam então a se reunir em grupos como atores no palco se preparando para entrar em cena.

Encontra um lugar confortável entre duas raízes salientes de uma árvore bem grande onde se sentar. Ali, protegido do vento e sentado em uma macia almofada de musgo e folhas, você olha para o alto de novo. As nuvens vão se alterando, transformando, e assumem uma forma suave que lembra pessoas, lugares e outras bênçãos na sua vida. Você dá uma risadinha dessas caricaturas que o deixam feliz, satisfeito e contente.

Está dando para ver? Você pode pensar nelas como se fossem Meus anjos que o lembram dos presentes que lhe dou por amor e ilustram como cuido de você de uma maneira pessoal, sempre que as preocupações dessa vida estiverem encobrindo as suas bênçãos e minimizando a sua importância. Observando os desenhos nas nuvens celestiais, e louve-Me no seu íntimo com gozo inefável.

Perdido no Meu amor

Você está deitado de costas em uma colina verdejante, cheia de pequenas flores do campo. Atrás encontra-se uma serra magnífica, majestosa, coberta de neve. À sua frente um lindo vale por onde corre um rio sereno. No horizonte distante, a perder de vista, campos, bosques e lagos.

É um daqueles dias frios demais para sentar-se à sombra, mas deitado ao sol você fica aquecido, e o calorzinho da sua luz lhe dá uma sensação muito agradável. O ar fresco da montanha lá em cima chega a você carregado por uma suave brisa

Olha para o céu aberto e sente-se totalmente relaxado. Está azul, sem nenhuma nuvem. Parece até que daria para mergulhar e nadar nessa imensidão. Por mais estranho que pareça, não dá para ver o sol, apenas sentir o seu calor e ver a sua luz reluzindo por todos os cantos. No entanto, não precisa proteger os olhos quando olha para o alto, pois, apesar de forte, a luz não é ofuscante

No horizonte todo só se vê um céu perfeitamente azul. Você sente o Meu amor, que é muito maior, mais amplo, profundo, largo e eterno do que qualquer céu físico. E se perde nessa sensação de amor.

Vista panorâmica

Em pé numa colina, de frente para um viçoso vale, você sente uma brisa revigoradora soprar no seu rosto e cabelo. Olha para o céu e vê um pássaro todo colorido subindo às alturas ao sabor do vento. Ele plana. Basta inclinar um pouquinho as asas de vez em quando para se manter dentro das fortes correntes de ar que passam na lateral do paredão e jorram como se fosse um grandioso e invisível chafariz, sustentando aquela majestosa ave.

Você sente essa mesma brisa o levar ao alto, sem esforço. Basta estender os braços. É natural e o relaxa. Você acompanha o pássaro e sobe acima das belezas da natureza, deliciando-se com a paisagem colorida, deixando todas as preocupações para trás.

Uma variedade de beleza natural

Você está em pé na praia mais linda e tranquila que já viu. A água é praticamente lilás, no entanto tão clarinha que dá para ver a areia no fundo.

Você absorve a cena, inala o ar marinho que o revigora, sente a brisa constante, e observa as poucas nuvens perfeitinhas no céu cristalino. Ouve as ondas quebrando na praia de forma rítmica e constante, no entanto gentil. A areia branquinha, a poucos metros da água, imediatamente se transforma em um espesso e viçoso gramado verdejante.

Vê também altas palmeiras balançando com leveza, completando o cenário aprazível e lindo. Um pouco mais para dentro, onde termina a grama, começa um belíssimo campo de flores multicoloridas que combinam perfeitamente. Esse campo vai terminando e dá início a uma linda floresta praticamente mágica. Aos fundos de tudo veem-se os picos nevados das montanhas.

Absorva a cena. Aproveite essa calma e serenidade. Junto Comigo, nesse lugar especial, com esse amálgama de belezas naturais, pode sentir a perfeita paz que vai além do seu entendimento.

Publicado originalmente em novembro de 2008. Adaptado e republicado em maio de 2015.

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In the Beginning Was the Word

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The Gospel of John is the Gospel we go to for the plan of salvation, where an explanation of salvation and what it’s all about and why Jesus came are given in detail. The Gospel of John was written by the one who was probably the youngest of all the disciples, of whom it is said, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”1

Most authorities, theologians, and historians pretty well agree that he was probably the youngest disciple, and perhaps only a teenager. And yet he understood the plan of salvation and why Jesus came. Not just to fulfill all the prophecies about the Messiah, not even to be the Messiah at that time, in a sense. John explained clearly, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the meaning of Jesus and who He really was.

Who does John say Jesus was? He was the Word. That’s the first thing John says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.”2

Jesus was most of all the Word of God. What is a “word”? The Greek uses the word “logos,” meaning “word,” but it has a very deep meaning. “Logos” is a kind of word which means it is an expression, or even a manifestation of something. So Jesus is the expression of God.

God was trying to communicate His love through Jesus, making Jesus an expression of God’s love. God wanted to show the world His love. You can’t see love, you can’t see God, so He sent His Word. He said it in Jesus! He showed it in Jesus. He expressed it in Jesus. He communicated it in Jesus!

This is the depth of the Greek word “logos,” meaning a real genuine expression, something that is almost tangible; it’s so expressive and so real and says it so effectively with such expression, such meaning. Jesus was the expression of God’s love. He was the meaning of God’s love. He was the communication of God’s love. He said God’s love. He showed God’s love. He symbolized God’s love. He manifested God’s love.

It seems that John really captured that and understood the spiritual depths of the love of God and His salvation and what Jesus really meant to the whole world, not just to the Jews. John grasped the deepest and greatest meaning of Jesus, and it had to be by the Holy Spirit. It’s marvelous that he could show such depth when he was the youngest. He had to depend on the Holy Spirit to grasp the meaning and convey that Jesus was the Word of God, the expression of God, the love of God, as well as the Son of God.—D. Brandt Berg
The expression of God

In Philippians 2:6–8, Paul refers to Jesus’ equality with God. He states that Jesus “existed in the form of God,” but that He did not feel the need to grasp or hold on to that equal nature/form. Instead, for our behalf, He “emptied Himself” (literally, laid aside His privileges), taking the form of a bond-servant. “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Colossians 2:9 speaks of Jesus and says, “For in Him (Christ) all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”

Related to this is the teaching that Jesus is the very image or expression of God. John 1:1 refers to Jesus as the Word. In the Greek, Word is from logos, which means “thought” or “expression.” In Colossians 1:15, it says that Christ is “the image of the invisible God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4 also says that Christ “is the image of God.” Hebrews 1:3 says that Christ “is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation (express image) of His nature.”—Bob Williams
The Logos

God is the creator of all things. God is eternal and existed before anything else was in existence. This being the case, for Jesus to be God, then He must be eternal and He must have also existed before anything else existed. He must have had a part in creating all that is created. According to the first three verses of the Gospel of John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

When John was speaking of God the Son before He was born on earth, he referred to Him as the Word, not as Jesus. These verses show that the Word/Jesus had a hand in creation, as “all things were made by Him.” The word John used, translated into English as Word, was logos in the original Greek. The term Logos was first used in the 6th century BC by a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus to designate the divine reason or plan which coordinates a changing universe. As such, to a Greek speaker at the time, Logos meantreason, so they would have understood the verses as “in the beginning was the reason or mind of God.” They would understand that before creation the Logos existed with God eternally. Therefore the Logos, the Word, God the Son, was in existence before any created thing—including time, space, or energy—existed.

As one of the early church fathers, Athanasius, wrote, “There was never a time when He (the Logos) was not.” He is eternal. The Logos, God the Son, was with God the Father, and was God.

John 1:14 goes on to say:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John states clearly that the Logos, the Word, God the Son, became flesh and lived on earth. This means no less than that God the Son lived on earth for a time as a human being. It means that He, an eternal immaterial being, entered into His creation in time and space. This could only happen if God became incarnate, if He became man, which is exactly what happened when Jesus of Nazareth was born. He became the God-man, God in human flesh who dwelt amongst us.—Peter Amsterdam
Full of grace and truth

Truth is not simply something passive that we intercept, like the outcome of a CSI3episode that leaves us entirely certain of “what really happened.” Truth certainly has this definitive element; to be sure, the Logos which became flesh is God’s definitive account of truth. But this is something far deeper and more dimensional than cold, unresponsive facts, as further evidenced in John’s description of Christ as one “full of grace and truth” in himself. There is a corresponding, interactive, participatory quality to truth, which takes longer than an hour to absorb and is best understood by engaging its depth and character within a world of impersonal, simplistic alternatives. For if truth is personal—indeed, aPerson—it demands a lifetime of shared engagement with the one who is truth and the Spirit who actively leads us into a discovery of this truth.

Without any doubt, the mystery of the Christian religion is great—mystery not in the hidden CSI sense, but mystery revealed. Paul’s description of Jesus is as full of inscrutable truths as it is compelling evidences: “He was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.”4Evidences of the heights and depths of this divine mysterious truth can indeed be received as factual, definitive fingerprints. But so they are clues that point to a multi-dimensional, inexhaustible Person full of grace and truth.—Jill Carattini

Published on Anchor June 2015. Read by Jon Marc.



1 John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20.


2 John 1:1–3.


3 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation—an American television series.


4 1 Timothy 3:16.

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